Two months ago my husband told me he wanted to do a four month experiment in buying no new plastic. We would start in January, and be as strict as possible. The idea was that we would do a massive cleansing of plastic from our addicted system and then be able to reintroduce it in healthier ways. Beyond going without condoms and baby wipes, we didn’t imagine making huge changes to our life–we still drive, use the lights, etc. We consider ourselves an ordinary family with a careless habit of buying pre-packaged food at Trader Joe’s. At first, I looked at the countdown to January first as a doomsday march. However would we get by? I considered sneaking extra tubes of lip balm and packages of diapers into the shopping cart each week to build up a supply for desperate times. But a funny thing happened. I saw all around me how easy it was to not use plastic. The abundance was startling and intoxicating. It made me want to do more, go further. I mean, have you ever really looked at what is available in the bulk food section of your local co-op? I hadn’t. It’s still two months from our experiments start date, but we’ve already reduced our plastic consumption by 85%. We also joined a CSA for the winter, something I’d never taken seriously before. What’s next, who can say. One thing I know: the good life is here to stay.
This post was submitted by Kyce.
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Comment by Kyce — November 5, 2009 @ 2:45 pm